Hole
by Crystal2222
Summary: When Helen Cutter steals something vital from the ARC, Connor sets out to retrieve it, even if it puts his own life in mortal danger.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I just made a teeny tiny revision to the flash forward at the beginning of this story to reflect what I wrote in Chapter 3. Hopefully, it's too small to notice. g**

"I'll go," said Connor, peering into the hole. It was a crack, actually, a wide, rectangular crack with long skinny fissures shooting off it as far as he could see. But that didn't matter. It was still narrow and dark, smelling like dirt and dead things. He swallowed before he could take the words back.

Danny didn't reply. He was sprawled on his stomach, shining a torch into the dark maw, but all Connor could see were a couple of meters of craggy rock. Then blackness.

Becker jogged up to them. Blood was seeping through the bandage that wound around his upper arm. It had been a very long day. "We should get back through the anomaly. Sarah says the readings are getting wonky."

"Wonky?" asked Connor, with a frown. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know," said Becker impatiently, "but we need to go before that thing closes. I do not want to be stuck in Jurassic Park."

"It's not the Jurassic," began Connor. Then he just shook his head and dropped it. Now wasn't the time to lecture Becker on the difference between the Paleocene period, where they were, and a stupid movie about dinosaurs.

A warbling call shattered the quiet of the jungle. Danny climbed to his feet and brushed dirt off his knees, cursing long and hard. "We were so damn close."

"No," said Connor, grabbing his arm, "we _are_ close. Just lower me into the hole. I'll grab the device and be out in a couple of minutes."

"No way," said Becker. "It's too dangerous, and you're not trained."

Danny patted Connor's hand. "Sorry, mate, but Becker's right. We need to go."

"I could be halfway there while we're standing around here arguing," said Connor desperately. "We can't let Helen win, not again."

Danny spat into the dirt. "Crap."

**One Hour Earlier**

Connor made it all the way to Abby's mini before he realized he was missing something. "Oh no," he said after patting all his pockets and checking his laptop case. "I have to go back. Left me flashdrive inside."

"Really?" Abby sighed and threw her head back as if looking to the heavens for guidance. "I have a crazy idea, Connor. Why don't you just not work tonight."

"I can't. I've got too much to do, don't I?"

"But you can't do it all at once. It took Cutter a long time to figure things out. Give yourself a night off."

Connor hesitated. It would be nice to have a free evening. He knew he'd been working a lot of hours, and he had that end-of-semester burnt out feeling in his brain that made it hard to remember there was life outside the ARC. Plus, he really missed doing fun things like playing games and watching telly in the evenings. He'd tried once or twice to do that at Lester's place, but Lester disapproved of just about everything Connor liked to do. It was just easier to work.

A brilliant idea popped into his head. "Okay, I won't work on one condition."

"What's that?"

"If you'll hang out with me tonight. I'll come over to the flat. We'll get pizza and beer and play games. What do you say?" He tried to hide the longing from showing through his voice, but he suspected his eyes couldn't lie, so he glanced to the side.

It was hard living away from Abby. He missed her so much sometimes, that he'd almost gone over to the flat and begged her to let him move back in. Three times. Thankfully his pride prevented that from happening. The occasional ride home just made the situation worse, like being able to see the advert for Dr. Who without ever getting to watch the show.

Abby's face fell. "I can't. Jack and I have plans to go out. Some other time, though?"

Connor nodded. At least she looked really disappointed, and not just polite-disappointed. Still, he didn't trust himself to speak, sure that his voice would sound thick and hoarse, so he just ran back to the ARC before Abby could protest again.

When Connor got to his lab, he found the light on, which was odd. He swore he'd turned it off when he'd locked the door.

"Sarah?" he called as he walked inside. A tall, slim woman stood with her back to the door, running her fingers across the artifact. She froze in place but didn't turn around.

"Oi," said Connor, coming around the table, "how'd you get in here? No one's allowed—"

It was Helen. Connor balled his fists as he felt like he was going to explode with hate and fear and sadness all at once.

"Hello, Connor." She slipped her hand into the pocket of her khaki trousers and pulled out a pistol. She pointed it at him.

Connor narrowed his eyes at her. "What're you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious? You have something that belongs to me, and I want it back." She pulled the artifact from its cradle and tucked it into the messenger bag slung across her body. The gun never wavered, but she'd taken her eyes off Connor for just a moment to open the flap.

Connor used that distraction to grab a wrench from his table and hold it down by his side, tucking it behind his forearm. "Security is on the way here right now," he bluffed. "You'll never get out of the ARC before they catch you."

Helen chuckled. "Do you really think I walked in here through the front door? Dear, sweet, naïve Connor. Nick always said you were a bit slow."

Connor frowned. He knew it probably wasn't true, that Helen was playing mind games with him, but the comment stung, nonetheless. Abby had called him thick on occasion, and he knew he wasn't the best at reading people, so it wouldn't be too terribly surprising if Nick had said that. Still, he wanted the professor to only think the best of him in everything, and now it was too late.

Helen approached him from around the lab table, gun held steady in front of her. "You're quite pretty, though, with those big brown, soulful eyes. And that cute little dimple. So innocent. I bet you're still a virgin, aren't you?"

She reached out and stroked the side of his jaw and then traced his lips with her fingertips. Connor jerked his head back, trying not to flush. He wasn't a virgin, but just barely. As he started to step out of her reach, she grabbed his wrist and applied pressure to the inside tendon. Connor's fingers opened, and the wrench slipped to floor with a clang. She stepped out of reach.

As Connor rubbed his wrist, he tried to decide if he could punch her before she shot him. It didn't seem likely. "You don't have to do this, you know," he tried instead. "You have an anomaly opening device, right? Just leave the artifact and get out of here, and I won't tell anyone what happened."

"Now why would I do that?"

"Because it's what Professor Cutter wanted. You were his wife, so you must've loved him once, right?"

Helen smirked. "That was a long time ago, Connor."

"Then think of all the people dying because of the creatures that come through anomalies. What we're doing here is really important. Cutter thought the artifact could help with that. Do you hate the world so much that you'd take away the one thing that can help? Did you hate Cutter that much?"

"Well, I shot him, so that should answer your question."

Connor thrust his jaw forward, nostrils flaring. He'd never hated anyone as much as he did her.

"You know," she said as she backed out the doorway, "now that Stephen's gone, I could see us working together. He was a pretty boy too, but turned cynical and hard. I like your innocence." She smiled and ran her tongue over her lips. "It would be fun helping you grow up."

With that, she slipped out and closed the door behind her. A shot rang out and ricocheted off the door with a loud ping. Connor raced to it and tried the handle. It wouldn't turn. He was stuck.

He looked around, trying to figure out what to do. When he saw his phone, he ran to his desk and punched the buttons to connect his phone to the loud speaker system. "Danny, Becker, anyone," he shouted into the receiver. "Helen's here. She's stolen the artifact, and locked me in me lab. You have to stop her."

He hung up and raced back to the door. Helen had shot the lock, so Connor examined the hinges on the other side of the door. It wouldn't be too hard to take them apart. He grabbed a hammer and screwdriver and set to work.

A couple of minutes later, he removed the last hinge, jammed his screwdriver into the gap, and forced the door open. It didn't open very far, but Connor was slim, and managed to squeeze through. When he got into the hallway, he didn't know where to go, so he took off toward the hub. Halfway there, Danny and Becker ran past him heading in the opposite direction.

"She's in the supply room," shouted Becker as he raced past Connor.

"Anomaly alert," added Danny, breathlessly.

Connor reversed course and followed them down the hall. Along the way, they picked up several soldiers as well as Abby, who was carrying a tranquilizer gun and looking totally badass.

"What's going on?" she asked, running alongside Connor.

"Helen stole the artifact," he panted.

They glanced at each other and exchanged a grim look.

When the group got to the supply room, a flickering light shone out of the doorway. Becker held up a hand and ordered the civilians to stand aside as he and his soldiers prepared to enter the room. With a quick nod, they rolled through the doorway, weapons trained on the possibility that Helen Cutter would still be there, ready to fire on them. Connor wasn't surprised to see Becker's face appear in the doorway a moment later.

"She's not here," he said, shaking his head in disgust. "I think she went through the anomaly."

"Then we have to follow her," said Connor, stepping toward the doorway.

Danny placed a hand on his chest, stopping him. "Hold on, we need to think a moment before we just step through into who knows where. What if Helen is waiting for us on the other side? What if there are creatures ready to eat us?"

"Helen wouldn't go there if she was going to be eaten," shouted Connor. "She took the artifact! Cutter said it was the key to everything. I can't continue his work without it. And who knows what Helen can do with it."

Abby stepped up next to him and pulled Danny's arm away. "I'm with Connor," she said. "You haven't been here since the beginning, but if Helen wants something, it's bad. We need to stop her from getting it."

"They have a good point," added Becker. "With that anomaly-opening gizmo, she can sneak into the ARC whenever she wants and steal things out from under our noses. We need to stop her before she does something worse than just take an artifact."

Danny threw his hands up. "Fine, let's go before common sense makes me change my mind."

Becker nodded. He signaled for his men to follow him through the anomaly and prepare for a hostile reception. After they left, Danny gave Connor and Abby a stern look. "I hope this doesn't get us killed."

"Me too," said Connor, fervently. He glanced at Abby, and before he could stop himself, he placed his hand around the back of her neck and kissed her right on the lips. When Abby sent him a startled look, he decided to quote Star Wars. "For luck," he murmured.

As he prepared to step through, Abby reached over and linked her fingers with his. Connor glanced at their joined hands in surprise.

"For luck," she repeated, squeezing his hand.

Connor squeezed back, and together, they stepped through the anomaly.


	2. Chapter 2

When Connor stepped through the anomaly, he dropped Abby's hand and whirled around, looking for Helen. All he saw, though, were Becker's men fanning out, rifles trained on a tropical forest that was clearly from another time. Strange plants with oversized leaves and thorny vines surrounded them. Animals hooted off in the distance while insects provided a constant drone. The air felt heavy, moist, and too full of oxygen. The smell of vegetation was so strong, Connor could taste it in the back of his throat.

He figured they were in the late Paleocene or early Eocene, though he'd have to see a creature or two to know for sure.

Abby raised her tranq gun toward a narrow trail that disappeared into the bush.

"Any sign of her?" asked Danny.

Becker shook his head and pointed to the trail. "I don't imagine a creature made that."

"No," agreed Danny. He slapped the detector into Connor's hand and nodded to the anomaly. "How long is that thing going to stay open?"

Connor turned and held the detector up, checking the readings. "It's strong now, but it's hard to tell. This is a manmade anomaly, so it might stay open longer than other ones, or it might close faster."

"Well, that . . . doesn't help at all, actually." Danny made a face.

Abby lowered her tranq gun. "Why didn't Helen just close it like she usually does?"

"She knew we were chasing her, didn't she?" said Connor. "It would take too long." He bounced on the balls of his feet, anxious to take off down the trail. Cutter had trusted him with artifact, and he'd barely had it a month before losing it to the woman who'd murdered him. "We have to get going. Now!"

"We will, but you need to stay calm," said Danny. "I need someone back here to monitor the anomaly. The second it starts to weaken, we're going back through it, artifact or no artifact." He gave Connor a long look. "Understood?"

Connor nodded. Anything to hurry up the process. "But I'm not staying behind," he told him.

"Wouldn't dream of asking you." Danny chewed on the inside of his cheek as he glanced from Becker's men to Abby. "We're going to need firepower in case Helen has her clones with her. Sorry, Abby, but you'll have to stay."

She opened her mouth to protest, paused, and then nodded, a grim set to her jaw.

Danny told her to cross to the other side of the anomaly and radio Sarah. "Tell her to monitor the anomaly from the ARC while you do it from here. Any change at all, let us know. Got it?"

Abby gave him a sharp nod. Connor met her eyes and held them for a moment. "Be careful," he said.

"You too." When he handed her the detector, their fingertips brushed against each other.

Just as everyone turned to go, the ground came alive, jerking and undulating as if a giant were jumping up and down nearby. Connor fell on his side, bruising his hip on a rock. Abby let out a scream as she fell on top of him. Connor tried to grab hold of her, but it was hard to move his arms in the direction he wanted while being tossed around like a kernel of popcorn. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the other men had fallen too.

When the shaking stopped, Connor was aware of Abby clinging to his shoulder, fingers digging into his skin. Her left leg was looped over his hips, and he'd somehow managed to pull her against him with his right arm.

"Are you okay?" he asked, trying not to wince as she pushed against him to sit up.

"Yeah, I think so. You?"

Connor sat up and rubbed his hip. "Just a bit sore."

Danny and the others were climbing to their feet. "Brilliant," said Danny, brushing dirt and moss off his clothes. "This time period has bloody earthquakes? I'm tempted to scrap this whole mission right now."

"No," said Connor, scrambling to his feet, "as far as we know, they don't affect anomalies, just the ground."

Danny swore. "Fine, is everyone all right?"

When they all gave him a thumbs up, he gestured to the trail. "Then let's go."

Connor glanced at Abby, and she nodded for him to go. He turned and followed Becker, Danny, and his men down the trail.

They jogged for what seemed like miles to Connor. He'd been working out on a treadmill, but the climate-controlled gym at the ARC was no preparation for a hot jungle run across uneven ground with vines slapping him in the face and air so moist he felt like he was breathing water.

Finally Becker held up a fist, signaling them to stop. They huddled together behind some brush breathing hard. Sweat trickled down Connor's face.

"There's a building of some sort," said Becker, pointing to a clearing that Connor could just make out ahead of them.

"Any sign of Helen?" asked Danny.

One of Becker's soldiers crawled forward on his belly and peered through binoculars. "The clearing is empty," he said when he returned. "But there might be someone in the building."

Danny ordered them to secure the building, while he and Connor kept watch for Helen and her clones in case they appeared from another direction.

"I guess I'll just shout for help if I see anything then?" Connor held up his empty hands and gave Danny a pointed look.

Danny glanced at Becker, who then cleared his throat and pulled out a spare gun. "You remember how to use this?"

Connor resisted rolling his eyes, barely. "No, after your five million lessons, I can't remember a thing."

Becker passed him the gun. "Just be careful."

At Connor's nod, they stood and moved cautiously into the clearing. Helen's building was a small wooden structure with a flat roof, gradually being taken over by the jungle. Vines snaked up the side. Bushes and fledgling trees sprouted next to the walls. The wood itself looked like it had started to rot in places. It didn't look to Connor like she'd been there recently.

Danny and Connor hung back while Becker's soldiers pulled open the door and trained their guns on the inside. "Clear," called one of them.

As the soldiers stayed outside, Connor followed Danny into what looked like a small home. Shelves stood against one of the walls, filled with water, canned goods, bags of rice and beans, ammunition, and a couple of rifles. A cot, sleeping bag, and kerosene lamp took up space against another wall. A small table held a camp stove and cooking implements, as well as a pile of technical gadgets.

Danny shined a torch on the table. "Recognize anything?" he asked Connor.

Connor gently touched the circuit boards, capacitors, batteries, and other gizmos, some of which he couldn't identify. "Yeah, but I'm not sure what they're for."

"Well, we might as well take it all with us," said Danny with a rueful twist to his mouth. "If we can't catch Helen, at least we can steal from her."

Connor glanced around until he spied Helen's pillow covered with a floral pillowcase. It seemed incongruous for a murdering madwoman to have something so domestic like this. He almost didn't watch to touch the cloth she'd rested her head on, but he made himself pull it off the pillow and dump the gadgets inside.

Becker stuck his head in the doorway. "You about done in here? I think we need to head back. We obviously lost Helen."

Danny handed the ammunition to Becker, who stowed it in his pack. Then he slung the rifles over his shoulder. "Yeah, we're done. Connor?"

"No, not yet," he said. "We can find her. We just have to keep looking." He rushed outside and walked around the clearing, peering into the jungle for another path that might be too overgrown to be easily visible.

"Connor," called Danny, "mate, we lost her. She made another anomaly and is who-knows-where now. Or when. Come on, let's go."

"No, Cutter gave me the artifact. He told me it was up to me now. It could be the secret to understanding everything. Helen can't have it. She can't. She murdered Professor Cutter, and now I've let him down." Connor's voice rose until he was practically shouting. He forced himself to stop talking and turned back to the jungle. His eyes burned with unshed tears.

After a moment, he felt a hand on his shoulder. "It's not your fault," said Danny softly. "We'll get back at Helen sometime, okay? She'll show her hand again and we'll be ready for her. Just not today."

Connor pressed his fingers to his eyes and nodded.

Danny slapped him on the back. "Good man."

As they headed back to the trail, Connor paused beside the hut. "We should burn it."

When Becker and Danny glanced back at him, he repeated himself. "Let's burn it. Give her a surprise next time she comes through, yeah?"

Danny chuckled. "You've got a ruthless streak, mate. I like it."

Connor stood back as Becker poured kerosene around the inside of the hut and threw a match on it from the doorway. As the fire blazed hot and crackling, devouring Helen's stash of supplies, Connor clutched Helen's floral pillowcase to his chest. He expected to feel a sense of satisfaction for burning her oasis in the distant past. Or maybe the heat from the fire would warm up the icy spot deep in his heart that had been there since Cutter had died with his head resting on his shoulder. It did neither.

Connor turned and headed back to the anomaly.

- - - x x x - - -

Abby paced in a circle. For the millionth time, she checked the readings on the detector. The anomaly was just as strong as ever, but it didn't stop her from worrying about what was going on in the jungle. She hated being stuck back here babysitting a glowing ball of light. Sure, it was an important ball of light, but anyone from the ARC could be doing this. She needed to be with the team.

Connor especially worried her. He'd taken Cutter's death extremely personally. Sure, they all mourned for the professor, and sometimes Abby had to excuse herself to the ladies' room at work when his absence brought tears to her eyes. She'd cried in the last stall of the first floor loo more times than she cared to admit, and she suspected Connor had done his share of crying too. She knew with his dad being gone for several years, he'd looked up to Cutter as a father, and she imagined it would be doubly hard to lose someone who was so much more than just a boss to you.

The problem was, with Connor living somewhere else, they didn't get a chance to talk like they used to. She knew Connor was spending all of his time at work or bringing it home with him. He'd looked exhausted today, and Abby wished she'd told Connor they could hang out tonight rather than saying she had plans with Jack.

And now he was out in the jungle with Helen-freaking-Cutter, a proven murderer, while she was here. She just hoped Connor didn't do anything foolish to prove himself to Cutter's memory or in revenge over his death. Or that he wasn't too tired to react fast enough to keep himself safe.

Abby turned and paced in the other direction. She should be out there making sure he was okay, not stuck here like a toddler on time-out.

A sudden gust of wind blew her way, carrying with it the smell of fire. She raised a hand against the sun and looked up. A thin trail of smoke writhed grey against the blue sky. It was coming from the direction of where Connor and the rest of the team had gone.

Abby pulled out her radio and pressed the button. "Danny? Becker? Is everything okay?"

Before they had a chance to answer, though, a movement in the anomaly caught her eye. A person was stepping through, long and lean, too tall to be Sarah.

"Yeah, we're fine," she heard Danny say over the radio. "We should be there in a couple of minutes."

But Abby wasn't listening. Helen Cutter herself was materializing from the flickering shards and walking right up to her, a smug smile playing across her face. She held the artifact in one hand and a pistol in the other.

Abby dropped the detector and fumbled for her tranq gun, but she couldn't seem to get it of its holster. Coming face to face with the woman who'd murdered Cutter had made her clumsy and slow.

Helen raised the pistol and pointed it at Abby's head. "Abigail, so nice to see you again. Were you looking for this?" She held up the artifact.

Abby nodded. "You better not have hurt Sarah."

"Is that who that was in the supply room? She's pretty. Stephen would've liked her." She chuckled as she'd just told a private joke.

"You won't get away with this," said Abby, trying to keep her whole body from trembling.

Helen opened her mouth to reply, but Abby's radio crackled.

"Abby? You okay over there?" asked Connor. "Come in, please."

Helen smirked. "I best be off before your boyfriend gets here. I might decide to keep him for myself this time."

Helen stepped forward and pressed her gun to Abby's forehead. "You, on the other hand, are expendable."

Abby closed her eyes and felt tears run down her face. She had a sudden wish to tell Connor she loved him before she died. If she didn't think it would just get her killed sooner, she'd pick up the radio and do just that. It would shock him to hear her say the words, but he'd said them to her so long ago and they'd never talked about it, so it served him right to be shocked a little by her saying them back to him out of the blue like this. Perhaps it shocked her too, to be thinking them at all.

It's funny the kind of things that go through your mind about when you're about to die. "Please don't do this," Abby begged. She screwed her eyes as tight as she could and waited for the pain to explode in her forehead. Instead, something struck her on the side of her head, sending her into blackness.


	3. Chapter 3

"Abby?" said Connor into the radio. "Come in, please."

He listened intently for a response as he walked down the path back to the anomaly, but none came. "Abby, talk to me. Why aren't you answering?"

When Abby still didn't say anything, he gave the radio back to Danny. "Something's wrong."

"Yeah," said Danny with a frown. "I'm starting to think that, too." He called for a stop.

Becker and his men turned to face Danny and Connor. Everyone was sweating and panting in the hot humid air as bugs flitted around their faces and creatures moaned off in the distance.

"Did anyone actually see Helen go through the anomaly?" asked Danny, waving away a cloud of tiny insects.

Connor watched Becker and his men exchange glances and shake their heads.

"She was gone before we entered the supply room," said Becker with a disgusted look on his face. "Or so we assumed."

"She's going to kill Abby," exclaimed Connor. He took off running for the anomaly site. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Becker lunge for him to stop him, but he twisted and somehow managed to dodge his long arms. After a brief stumble, he was sprinting down the trail, pillowcase swinging from his left hand and hitting him on the thigh. He held the gun in his right hand, up and ready to point at Helen.

By the time he got to the anomaly site, he was breathing fast and ragged. Sweat dripped into his eyes, and the gun felt precarious in his slick palm. He threw down the pillowcase, and clutched the gun with both hands, pointing it in a circle around the small clearing. There was no sign of Helen anywhere. Connor waited a moment to see if she was hiding, but when she didn't appear, he finally allowed himself to look at the motionless lump in a denim jacket and dark leggings.

"Oh my God," whispered Connor. He ran to Abby and dropped to his knees in front of her. She lay on her side, hands resting together as if in prayer, looking peaceful. Peaceful and unmoving. Connor wasn't sure what to do or where to touch without hurting her more than she already was. His fingers hovered over her arm, shoulder, neck, and cheek. When he noticed the bloody gash on the side of her head, he almost let out a sob. Instead he forced himself to watch the slow rise and fall of her chest. With a shaking hand, he touched the pulse point at her neck and was relieved to feel a steady beat.

"How is she?" asked Danny, dropping to his knees on the other side of Abby.

"She's alive," said Connor, his voice cracking. "But Helen bashed in her head. Look."

Danny took charge. The convenience of the anomaly opening into the ARC meant that one of Becker's men could go there and organize a medical team to take care of Abby.

As they waited, Connor held Abby's hand, murmuring, "Please be okay, you're strong, I'm here," and other nonsense that he hoped would somehow reassure her if she could hear. Or maybe it was to reassure him. It didn't matter, just that she be okay.

The medics arrived and pushed him out of the way. He stood back and chewed on his thumb as they put a collar on her, secured her to a stretcher, and transported her back through the anomaly.

Connor swayed on his feet. He longed to run back into the ARC and make sure Abby wasn't seriously injured, to wait with her until she woke up, assuming she did wake up. _She would_, he told himself. _She had to_. Yet, Helen had done this to Abby. She'd stolen the artifact and killed Cutter. His desire to find Helen was almost as strong. He took a deep breath and pushed away the image of Abby's small form lying still on the stretcher.

As Danny consulted with Becker, Connor walked over to his abandoned pillowcase. He squatted next to it and poked around inside. A couple of the tiny circuit boards caught his eye. He pulled them out to examine them in the light, but he couldn't figure out what they were for.

"How's the anomaly doing?" asked Danny, holding out the detector to Connor. "Staying strong enough for us to remain here?"

"Huh?" asked Connor, forcing himself to stand and shift his attention to Danny.

Danny grabbed the pillowcase and slapped the detector in Connor's hand. "How's the anomaly?" he prodded. "We okay here for a while?"

Connor glanced at the circuit boards again before shoving them in his pocket. There would be time to figure them out later. He studied at the detector. "No change. We should be good for a while."

Several silhouettes appeared in the anomaly, transforming into soldiers followed by Sarah. As soon as everyone entered the clearing, they paused to gape at the tropical surroundings with exotic and extinct plants, the humid air, the strong smell of vegetation. After a moment, the soldiers headed over to Becker on the other side of the clearing. Sarah blinked, gave herself a visible shudder, and stepped up to Connor and Danny.

"Wow," she said, shaking her head in amazement. "How many millions of years in the past am I now?"

"About 20 million, give or take," said Connor. He couldn't help but smile a little. It was fun to see people's first reaction to time travel.

Danny grinned. "Takes some getting used to, doesn't it?"

Sarah nodded. "What do I need to do?"

Connor handed her the detector and made sure she knew how to use it. Danny did the same with the radio.

"Any sign of that thing weakening, you let us know right away," Danny told her. "And then you go through it. No waiting for us, got it?"

Sarah nodded solemnly. "Good luck."

As Danny gave her the pillowcase to hang onto, Becker called out and beckoned them over. Once they joined him, he showed them the imprint of a boot in the soft loam, pointing _into_ the jungle. Farther in, a small flower lay squished on the ground. "While we track her," he said, "I'm sending a couple of men back to her hut in case she doubles back."

"Good thinking," said Danny.

Becker gave the orders. Then he set off into the jungle, followed by a soldier named Samuels, then Danny, Connor, and another soldier named McCreary.

Connor couldn't do anything except blindly tag along behind Danny, hoping Becker knew what he was doing. It was slow going, and he imagined that it wasn't easy to follow a trail of snapped twigs, small indentations of tread on the ground, and trampled plants. At least it was downhill, which made it a little less grueling. Connor waved away insects and wiped sweat off his face with his sleeve. He also took the gun out of the back of his pants, feeling buoyed by the solid weight of it.

After a while, the ground grew even steeper as the plants became sparse. Eventually just a few hardy varieties poked through the now-rocky ground. Boulders as large as cars lay sprinkled around the area as if a giant had thrown down a handful of pebbles. Eventually they stepped onto a ledge about twenty feet wide. Rushing water roared down below, and across a rather large gap, Connor could see a cliff mirroring their own, complete with boulders and a jungle rising behind it.

Danny cursed. He kicked a loose stone and sent it clattering over the edge. "Don't suppose she left any footprints here, did she?"

Becker didn't answer as he paced first to the left and then to the right. He paused, hand raised to shade his eyes from the sun. "I see a rope," he said.

"A rope?" asked Connor, not sure he had heard right. He followed Becker along the ledge to where, yes, a rope of all things was tied around a boulder. It lay across the cliff and dangled into the abyss.

Danny got down on his stomach. "Hold my legs," he ordered.

Connor tucked his gun back in his trousers while Becker placed his rifle on the ground. They grabbed a leg each and held on as Danny scooted to the edge and peered down.

"There's an anomaly about halfway to the river," he called over his shoulder, "which is about two hundred feet below us. The rope stops just above the anomaly."

"But its close enough," said Helen, behind them. "Though you have to swing a little to make sure you hit it."

Connor and Becker helped Danny scramble back from the edge. They all jumped to their feet and turned to face her. Out of the corner of his eye, Connor noticed Samuels and McCreary with their rifles pointed at Helen. She didn't seem to care. Her own gun was steady as she kept it trained on them.

"Helen, I presume," growled Danny.

She just smirked at him. "You're new. I don't believe we've—"

"You almost killed Abby," blurted Connor. His fingers twitched. He wanted to reach for his gun, but knew he'd never be fast enough. "She could be dying now for all we know."

Helen shrugged. "It's your fault, Connor. You raised the alarm and came after me. I was just taking back what you stole. She's lucky, actually. I could've shot her like I shot Nick. Rather merciful of me, wouldn't you say?"

Connor clenched his fists until his fingernails dug painfully into his palms. He kept his mouth shut. He didn't know what to say to such madness.

"Helen," said Danny, fingers spread wide to show he wasn't going to try anything. "We've got you outnumbered, and there are more soldiers on the way right now. It's time to give up. You lost."

"Should we play the game of whose trigger finger is faster?" she said. "I'm sure I can kill one of you before your soldiers kill me. Who shall it be? You? Becker? How about dear, sweet Connor?" She pointed to gun right at his head. "Though it would be a shame to lose such a brilliant mind."

Connor swallowed and kept very still.

Helen turned and fired a shot into the ground in front of the soldiers. They jumped back. "Down, boys. Why don't you drop those rifles before my aim gets better."

Becker told them to do as she said. As Samuels and McCreary slowly placed their rifles on the ground, Connor noticed Becker inching around to Helen's left.

Meanwhile Danny slung his arm around Connor's shoulders. "You all right?" he asked softly.

Connor nodded.

"Stop," ordered Helen, whirling on Becker. She fired and hit him in the arm. He called out in pain and doubled over, clutching his wound with his other hand. Blood trickled out between his fingers. Connor's body tingled with adrenaline, and he could feel his heart thump all the way in his throat. He wanted Helen stopped, wanted the artifact back, but it wasn't worth getting anyone else killed.

Helen waved the gun at them, a scowl creasing her face. "All right, no more fun and games. Move away from the rope. All of you."

As Becker straightened, he glanced at Connor and Danny and gave them a big wink. Connor looked at Becker's arm and noticed there wasn't that much blood, really. The wound must not be very serious. He felt a spark of hope. And as they backed up, his hope became more than a spark. Danny was sliding his hand down from Connor's shoulders to his waist.

"Keep going," said Helen. She stepped closer to the rope, waving them back.

Danny pulled out Connor's gun and yelled, "Down!" as he pointed it at Helen.

The ground lurched up and sideways, spilling everyone onto the rocky ledge. Connor felt the wind knocked out of him as the solid world became soft and malleable, undulating like ocean waves. Helen screamed and one of the soldiers, McCreary maybe, yelled in pain. Connor fought to take in a breath. He noticed Danny trying to get up on his hands and knees, the gun still clutched in one hand, but the ground just smacked him back down again. Becker, who was closer to the edge, just seemed to be trying not to be dumped over the side.

A crack opened nearby to Connor's left, and he somehow managed to roll away from it as his breath finally returned in a painful whoosh. He saw Helen lurch to her feet only to sprawl back onto the ledge. Her gun skittered off the cliff, and her bag split open, spilling its contents. The anomaly-opening device slid toward Connor as the ground tilted in his favor, but when it tilted another direction, the device slid precariously close to the crack.

The tremors finally subsided. Everyone lay panting, in shock, waiting to see if the earthquake had definitely stopped. Connor sat up, his whole body protesting. He felt like he'd actually tumbled off the edge of the cliff. As Danny and Becker lurched to their feet, he did as well.

"Get up," said Danny, breathing heavily and pointing the gun at Helen.

Helen shook her head and blinked. She slowly pushed herself up and then rose to her feet, looking dazed. Her chin was scraped, and blood trickled out of her nose. She turned and spat blood over the ledge.

Another tremor shook the ground. It wasn't nearly as big as the last one, but it caused Danny to stumble and swing the gun wide.

Helen took advantage of the distraction. She reached down and grabbed the artifact. Becker lunged for her, but she dodged aside and he fell, grunting, onto his injured arm. Connor tried to stumble over there, but before he could take more than a couple of steps, Helen bent her knees, pushed off the rock, and jumped into thin air.

"No," yelled Connor, wondering if he'd just watched her kill herself and take the artifact with her.

The opening device! He spun around, looking for it. At least they still had that. It teetered on the edge of the newly formed crack, which was more of a hole, actually, a small rough diamond-shaped opening in the rock. As Connor scrambled toward it, the ground gave itself another shake. Connor fell onto his hands and knees and made a grab for it. The device tumbled into the hole, just out of Connor's reach.


	4. Chapter 4

There was pain—sharp and intense radiating from the left side of her head, as if someone had driven a nail into her skull and left it there. Abby tried to open her eyes, but bright fluorescent lights made the pain a million times worse. She actually moaned out loud.

"Welcome back," a man said. "Can you open your eyes for me?"

Abby did as he asked, squinting until her eyes adjusted. A youngish man with extremely short hair and wire-rimmed glasses was looking down at her. He wore a stethoscope around his neck, and his nametag said Dr. Burrows.

"Where am I?" she asked, surprised by how weak her voice sounded.

The doctor's eyes crinkled in concern. "You're at the ARC medical. Do you remember what happened?"

Abby started to shake her head, but when a tiny movement drove the nail deeper into her skull, she thought better of it. "Um, I was getting ready to go home, and uh . . ." Her brain seemed to be working at half speed. "Oh yeah, I was giving Connor a lift and he ran back inside to get something. Was I in a traffic accident or something?"

The young man clicked on a small flashlight and shined it into each of her eyes. "No, someone hit you on the side of your head. You don't remember going through the anomaly?"

Abby frowned. It was really hard to think with the way her head was pounding in time to her pulse. She reached up and gingerly touched the side of her head, half afraid she'd actually feel a giant nail sticking out. Thankfully, there was just a bandage there. "Can I get something for the pain?"

Dr. Barrow patted her on the shoulder. "In a little bit." He asked her a bunch of questions—what was the year, her name, what did she do for a living, and what was her address. Apparently she answered them satisfactorily because he nodded at each response. After he had her follow his finger with her eyes, he stepped back and typed something in a computer on the counter.

"How is she?" asked Lester from the doorway.

Abby turned and immediately regretted it as the pain went off the scale. She closed her eyes and breathed shallowly while the doctor explained that she had a concussion and some amnesia, but that she would probably make a full recovery in a few weeks.

"I'll send in the nurse with Percocet," he said. "Then we'll get your head stitched up, and you should be good to go home. But you'll have to take it easy for a while. No telly, no texting, and definitely no rugby." He chuckled at the bad joke, and Abby let her mouth twitch into a smile.

After his footsteps faded away, Abby opened her eyes, carefully keeping her head absolutely still. Lester stepped up to her bed and awkwardly patted her on the shoulder. "Do you need anything?" he asked, giving her a concerned look she hadn't known he was capable of showing.

That worried her more than anything. "Just tell me what happened," she said, suddenly noticing how odd it was that Lester of all people was visiting her. "And where's Connor? Or Danny and Sarah? Are they all right?"

"Everyone's fine, as far as I know. What happened is . . . Helen Cutter." He practically spat her name. "She somehow opened an anomaly and broke into the ARC. She stole the artifact and took it back through an anomaly. You were on the other side when she bashed in your head. Quinn had a medical team bring you in here, and the others are chasing after her right now. Does any of this sound familiar?"

"No." Abby tried to push her sheet down. If Helen was out there somewhere, Abby needed to help stop her. But her hands were clumsy and the material seemed to be made of spider webs, all sticky and clingy. Abby gave up and dropped her arm, panting. "I need to go there."

"Don't be daft," said Lester, clicking his tongue at her. "You can't go anywhere in your condition. You'll just be carried back here on a stretcher again, and what is that point of that?"

"But I need to help."

"You already did your part." Lester gave her another awkward pat. "Now, lie still and be sensible and let the others do their jobs. You don't want to distract Temple, do you? He needs all the concentration he can muster."

"No, I suppose not," said Abby. But she couldn't help worrying about Connor facing the woman who'd murdered Cutter. Helen was capable of anything, and Connor might not be too shy about avenging his mentor's death or doing something foolish in the name of saving that damn artifact. It was a situation ripe for disaster, and Abby was stuck here on the wrong side of the anomaly.

She lay back and willed the nurse to hurry up with her pain medicine and her sutures. Despite what Lester said, she was not going to lie here all day while the rest of the team was off finding Helen.

-x-x-x-

Connor tried not to shift impatiently. Danny was checking the rope looped around Connor's waist and threaded between his legs, making sure the knots were secure. But when Connor noticed Danny tugging on the same knots for the third time, he stepped back. "It's fine, Danny. We have to hurry."

Ever since Helen had jumped over the side of the cliff, they'd done nothing but hurry. Sarah had reported that the anomaly was starting to deteriorate, so Danny had sent the extra soldiers back to the ARC. With Connor and Becker holding his legs, he'd peered over the ledge, looking for Helen's crumpled body at the bottom of the ravine. When he saw no sign of her, they all concluded she'd made it through the anomaly that still hovered in the middle of the ravine. An anomaly that took Helen back to who-knew-what time period. But now it was starting to fade too, a fact that sent Connor's mind whirling at how two anomalies could open in the same Paleocene time period and then both begin to fade at the same time. He had no answer but suspected it had something to do with Helen's anomaly-opening device.

A device that Connor would never be able to examine if they didn't lower him into the hole already. "C'mon, Danny. It'll be fine."

Danny gave one of the knots a final tug. "Yeah, you won't be saying that if these things unravel while you're going down." He frowned at Connor and chewed the inside of his cheek. "Maybe I should go."

"Or me," said Becker. A red-stained strip of gauze was wrapped around his upper arm from where Helen had shot him. Sweat beaded his forehead and lines of pain marred the corners of his eyes.

Connor gave him a skeptical look. "You're shot!"

"So?" said Becker shrugging. "It's just a nick. I'm trained for this sort of thing."

"So'm I," said Danny.

Connor rolled his eyes. "Well, it don't matter 'cause you're both too big, aren't you? For once it's an advantage to being small. Small-ish. That means I'm lighter too, so it'll be easier to lower me down."

Danny sighed and clicked on his radio. "Sarah, how's the anomaly look?"

"It's down about 25 percent, but it's holding steady now. No, wait. It's just ticked down another 5 percent."

Danny swore.

"C'mon, Danny," said Connor, trying to keep the pleading sound from his voice. "These things always fluctuate. We still have enough time."

Danny frowned at Connor as he spoke into the radio. "Is it still fading?"

"No," said Sarah, "it's stopped and hey, look at that. It's actually getting a bit stronger."

"See?" said Connor.

Danny shot him a dirty look. "All right, Sarah. Just let us know if it weakens again."

Sarah promised she would.

Danny turned to Connor. "You ready?"

Connor nodded.

Danny handed Connor the torch and picked up the end of the rope. He looped it around a large boulder and sat down with his feet against it for leverage. Becker looped the end of the rope around his waist, and when he joined Danny, he wrapped a section of it around his uninjured arm.

Connor sat on the edge of the hole and let his feet dangle. Now that he was actually going down, he realized he'd have to deal with the fact that the hole was long and narrow, more of a tunnel actually. A dark, scary tunnel going between rocks that had been touching each other just a little while ago.

Now was not the time for his claustrophobia to kick in, he told himself firmly. He'd be in there a short time. Just pop down and back up. The rocks would not close in around him while he was there. They wouldn't. If anything, the crack would open wider, not smaller. Wouldn't it?

He swallowed. "Ready," he called, his voice squeaking.

"All right," said Danny, adjusting his grip on the rope. "Just lower yourself over the edge. Remember, if it gets too tight in there, call out and we'll pull you up. You do not want to get stuck. And if this is taking too long, I'm pulling you up regardless. Got it?"

Connor nodded, trying to push away the image of being stuck between slabs of granite halfway down the hole. "Yep. Let's go."

He scooted off the edge and felt the rope cut into his legs and waist. As Danny and Becker slowly lowered him into the hole, he clicked on the torch, though he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. It illuminated the rocky walls around him, but that only made him more aware of how tight a spot he was in. He supposed it was better than total blackness, though.

At one point, after being lowered about twenty feet, he even had to call out for them to pause as a sharp chunk of rock pressed into his stomach. He raised his arms above his head and wriggled to the side, ignoring the threat of panic just below the surface of being permanently stuck. Once he was clear, he wiped his now-sweating palms on his shirt and waited for his pulse to stop pounding in his throat. His stomach hurt from where the rock had scraped him.

"Okay," he yelled, "lower away."

"Temple," called Becker, grunting, "for someone so small-ish, you weigh a ton. When you get back to the ARC, you're going on a diet!"

Connor felt a stab of guilt for eating pizza the night before. He started to yell out an apology to Becker, but the rope shook, and Connor was slammed into the rocks behind him, knocking his head painfully on the hard surface. "What the hell?!" he shouted as he was rammed into the rocks in front of him, scraping the knuckles of the hand holding the torch, which he gripped convulsively. He suddenly dropped about ten feet, and a scream tore from his mouth. With an abrupt jerk, he stopped short, and the rope bit into his legs.

Connor clutched the rope and pressed the torch against his chest. He swayed from side to side against the rocks, breathing hard. The earthquake seemed to have stopped, but for a moment, he worried that the tunnel was going to collapse in on him. When it didn't do so right away, he forced himself to stare up at the small hole at the top of while he took long deep breaths. As long as he could see blue sky and daylight, he was all right, he told himself. The tunnel was not getting smaller. It was not about to collapse. It was all going to be fine.

"You all right, mate?" called Danny, his voice sounding strained.

Connor wet his lips. "Yeah. How are you guys?"

"Other than some rope burn, we're—"

The walls shook and the rope went slack. Connor plummeted to the bottom of the hole, scraping his elbows as he fell. He landed on his left leg and heard a loud crack. Pain shot through his shin, and Connor screamed and rolled onto his side, dropping the torch and clutching his knee to his chest. The torch rolled around, casting crazy shadows all around him. The ground shook for a few more seconds and settled down once again. A hunk of rock broke off the wall and landed near Connor's head. He barely noticed.

"Connor! Connor!" called Danny.

Connor glanced up. A dark Danny-shaped shadow was blocking the opening. Just as Connor was going to call up to him, he noticed something horrible. The rope was gone. It wasn't dangling from the top of the hole. Connor lunged for the torch and shone it around his space. He was in a small cavern with a dark passage going off to his left. The rope lay piled on the ground all around him like a dead snake. Oh God, oh God. The rope was down here with him and not up at the top where it needed to be.

"Connor, you all right, mate?" asked Danny. "Say something."

"I broke me leg," called Connor, panic making his voice high and tight. "The rope is down here."

"I know," said Danny. "These damn earthquakes. We couldn't hold on. Sorry. Becker is radioing Sarah about getting us a new rope. Just hang in there, okay?"

"Okay." Connor sat up. His hands were shaking. It took a moment for him to shine the torch onto his broken leg without it wavering too much to see anything. His leg didn't look funny or misshapen, and there didn't seem to be a bone sticking out. In fact, it looked quite normal, though he couldn't make himself pull up the material of his pants to make sure. It just hurt like hell. He'd broken his wrist once when he was a kid, and this felt worse.

"Are you kidding me?" he heard Danny say up top. "It changed that fast? Oh crap."

"What's going on?" called Connor.

"The anomaly's down to fifty percent and falling fast," he said.

Connor felt like he was going to be sick. "Did you get the other rope yet?"

When there was no answer, Connor felt his whole body shake. "Danny?" he called. "What's going on?"

"It's down to twenty-five percent," said Becker. Connor could see Becker's shadow join Danny's at the top of the hole. "We don't have time to get another rope."

When Connor didn't say anything, Becker added. "I'm sorry, Temple, but we have to go."

"Don't leave me," whispered Connor, as if it were a prayer. "Please don't leave me."

"Quinn, come on," said Becker. "We need to go now."

"I'm not leaving Connor behind."

"We have no choice. It makes no sense for us to be stuck here too."

Connor wanted to cry. He didn't want to be stuck here alone in a small dark hole, but he couldn't live with himself if Danny or Becker got stuck here too, all because Helen Cutter had involved them in her wacked out plans. First she'd killed Cutter and now, because of her, Connor would be responsible for getting someone else trapped here with him. It wasn't right.

Connor shined his torch around the cave. He spied Helen's anomaly-opening device on the ground just out of reach.

"Danny," called Connor, before he could talk himself out of it. "You've got to go. I'll be fine. I have Helen's device down here. I'll be able to open another anomaly, yeah? Probably get home before you do."

"Wait, you can do that?" asked Danny.

"Yeah," said Connor, lying through his teeth. "Piece of cake."

"Fifteen percent," said Becker, and Connor could see him wrap an arm around Danny's shoulders and tug him away from the opening.

"Go," shouted Connor. "I'll be fine."

"You better not be lying," yelled Danny, as he backed away from the hole.

"I'm not. Go!"

"All right, be careful." And with that, Danny's shadow disappeared, and Connor found himself alone in the hole. The cave was silent. He was so far down he couldn't even here the forest sounds above him, just his own breathing, fast and shallow, as he fought to keep his emotions under control.

He lay back and closed his eyes. Yes, the anomaly-opening device was down here with him. But what he hadn't told Danny was that it was smashed open, and Connor had no idea how or if he could repair it. Chances were that he'd die of thirst, lying on the bottom of the hole, millions of years in the past. He'd never finish Cutter's work, buy his own car, or do a million other things he'd wanted to do before he'd died. Most important of all, he'd never get the chance to tell Abby how much he loved her again. Connor let the tears fall.

-x-x-x-

Abby sat on a stool in the storage room, staring at the flickering anomaly. Her head was all patched up, and she had enough Percocet in her to dull the pain to a mild ache. The doctor hadn't wanted her to come here, but Abby had refused to go home until everyone was back safe. Lester had escorted her to the storage room, and now he paced near the door while Sarah stood off to one side, clutching Connor's detector and giving constant reports about the strength of the anomaly.

"Nineteen percent," she said. "I hope they hurry."

"How strong does it have to be to still work?" asked Lester.

Sarah shrugged and glanced at Abby. "I didn't even know they could get weaker until today. I thought they were either here or not here."

Abby frowned. "As long as we can see them, they work. I mean, I've never seen a creature try to go through one and not make it. Unless they disappear, that is."

"Seventeen percent," reported Sarah.

Abby thought the anomaly was starting to look a little less bright, the flickering shards less sharp.

"Fifteen percent."

Abby scooted off the stool. The room swayed for a moment, and the sudden movement caused her head to hurt a tiny bit more, but otherwise, she seemed fine. "I'm just going to go see what's taking so long."

Before she could take more than a couple of steps, a strong hand clamped down on her shoulder. "That would be the ultimate in foolishness," said Lester. "If you make another move, I'll call in a soldier to restrain you."

"You wouldn't!" said Abby, giving him an astonished look.

"Wouldn't I? Health and safety is my primary concern. And you popping through the anomaly is not on the approved list."

"Nine percent," said Sarah, sounding alarmed.

The three of them turned to stare at the anomaly.

Come on, come on, come on, thought Abby. Get home, Connor. You don't have to find Helen, just make it home okay. She found herself thinking of all the wonderful things she'd do for him when he came through, starting with letting him move back into the flat and pick all the TV shows to watch for a week and order pizza for dinner every night and maybe even kiss him just because she'd been wondering what it would be like to kiss him for a while now, and maybe it was time to find out.

But before she could do any of those things, he had to make it back. She pressed her fingers to her mouth to keep from calling his name out loud, as if he might hear her through the anomaly.

"Four percent," said Sarah.

The anomaly was definitely looking duller now, and Abby could see through it to the shelves against the wall. Abby inched to the side, preparing to run through, but Lester tightened his grip on her shoulder.

The anomaly darkened as a form lunged through and stumbled into the room. It was Danny. He turned around in time to catch Becker who'd come in behind him.

"We made it," gasped Danny. He was breathing hard as if he'd sprinted across through the entire jungle. Becker was also panting, and the two of them were leaning on each other.

"Where's Connor?" asked Abby.

Danny and Becker exchanged a glance. "He's not coming," said Danny.

"Two percent," said Sarah.

"What?" Abby squirmed out from under Lester's grip, ignoring the way the movement made her head throb. "Why?"

"He's trapped in a hole," said Becker. "The rope fell, and there was no time to rescue him."

"He told us to go," said Danny, giving her a pleading look, as if asking for her forgiveness. "We had no choice. It made no sense for all of us to get trapped."

"We'll I'm not leaving him there." Abby sprinted for the anomaly, but before she could reach it, Becker grabbed her around the waist and picked her up. She kicked and scratched at him, but he swung her away from the anomaly.

"Abby, Abby, stop it," he said. "You can't go through or you'll be trapped too."

"But I can't leave him," she yelled. "Maybe you can leave him there all alone, but I can't. Let me go."

As she struggled to break free from Becker, Sarah called out that the anomaly had gone down to zero. A moment later, it winked out of existence.

"No," screamed Abby.

Becker released her, and she stumbled to the side, staring at the spot the spot where the anomaly had just been. It was gone, and so was Connor.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait. For those who can't remember where we are, Connor is stuck at the bottom of a long hole with a broken leg in the Paleocene period. Danny and Becker had just escaped through the anomaly back to the ARC, and they made it right before the anomaly closed.**

Danny swore long and loud before kicking a metal bin across the storage room. The clatter barely registered in the noise. Everyone was talking over each other. Lester demanding to know what had happened. Abby screaming at them for abandoning Connor. Sarah yelling at everyone to calm down. And Becker saying over and over that they had no choice, that Temple had known the risk before he went down the hole and had insisted he do it anyway, that they had to leave him or get trapped themselves.

"You're supposed to be looking out for him," said Abby, tears running down her face, leaving two tracks black from mascara. She angrily smeared them away with a thumb, and her glare took in Becker and Danny at once. "He's a scientist, not a soldier. You know he's no good at this stuff."

"That's what I said." Becker shot Danny a dirty look.

"Yeah, you're right," said Danny, throwing his arms up in the air. "I take full responsibility. I let the kid convince me that we needed Helen's anomaly opening thing. He seemed to think it was vital, and I listened to him."

"But why did Connor have to go look for it?" asked Abby. "Why not one of you?"

"The hole was small, and I didn't think Becker or I would fit. Plus, Becker was injured, so . . ." He ran a hand through his hair and let out a loud curse. He wanted to punch Helen Cutter or smash the ADD or shoot a dinosaur or, hell, anything rather than face the knowledge that he'd left Connor behind, trapped alone in a the bottom of a hole. God, he couldn't imagine what it must be like for him there, knowing rescue would never come.

"Right," said Lester, briskly. "Becker, you go to the infirmary. The rest of you up to my office. Now. We're going over every detail of what happened today before I have to call the minster . . . or Connor's next of kin. I assume rescue is out of the question?"

Danny made a face and shook his head.

Abby let out a small noise and covered her mouth with her hand. Sarah put her arm around her and escorted her from the room. Becker followed, muttering something about civilians. When Lester stepped alongside Danny, he paused and glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "You know this'll cost you your job."

Danny nodded, grimly. "Yeah, figured as much."

- x – x –x-

The small patch of sunlight from the hole had swung to Connor's left. He scooted his upper body the best he could until he felt warm rays on his face again. His whole body was shivering, possibly from shock, possibly from the falling temperature of the coming evening. He hadn't moved much in the time since Danny and Becker had left him. It was easier to just lie there, pretending that help might come. To imagine them tossing a rope down the hole and pulling him back out where a couple of rescue workers would be waiting with a stretcher, and then he'd go through the anomaly, get taken carry of properly in a hospital where Abby would visit him and give him a hot chocolate so he'd finally warm up.

Unless Abby was still unconscious. Or worse. Connor felt tears burn his eyes again. He'd thought he'd used them all up earlier, but just the thought of losing Abby for all time seemed to be enough to get him crying again. He was glad no one was there to see how weak he was. Becker wouldn't be crying. Becker would have figured out a way of climbing out of the hole and splinting his own leg with a stick and some rope. He'd have caught dinner with his bare hands, started a fire, and built a shelter by now.

Becker wouldn't be using up the little bit of liquid in his body on tears over a girl that may not even love him , a girl he'd never see again.

Connor pictured Abby with her kick boxing and tough-guy routine and her love of animals and the tender way she took care of him sometimes, especially when he forgot to eat and fell asleep in front of the computer. She'd wake him up in the middle of the night and send him to bed, and sometimes, she'd lay down with him and they'd both fall asleep together. Those were the best mornings, when he'd wake up to find Abby's beautiful heart-shaped face lying on a pillow next to his, her hair mussed and mouth parted slightly. Once he'd kissed her on the lips, feather-light, before she awoke just because he couldn't resist any longer. It had been the best morning of his life.

And now he wouldn't get a chance to kiss her properly. Connor fought the urge to sink further into self-pity. Abby wouldn't be lying here crying. And if she saw him, she'd be badgering to do something, anything, rather than just lie on the cold ground and wait to die.

Connor took a deep breath and pulled himself up to a sitting position. Sharp pain radiated through his lower leg. He rode it out, breathing shallowly. Eventually it faded to a manageable throb.

He clicked on the torch and swung it around. The cave was about the size of the kitchen in the flat, and the roof was a good 3 meters above him, which meant the bottom of the hole would be out of reach even if he could stand on two good legs and somehow shimmy his way up it. In the far wall, a narrow crack led to what was probably a dead end, considering how this hadn't even been a cave until the earthquake had torn the ground open this afternoon.

Connor fought off a sudden stomach-clenching bout of claustrophobia. _The hole would not close up, it wouldn't. The aftershocks are done, and there is plenty of air down here. _He released a long slow breath and got his emotions under control as he swung the torch onto the ground. Small hunks of rocks littered the ground, and a thick rope lay puddled around him. Helen's anomaly opening device sat next to the wall.

With some difficulty and much swearing, Connor disentangled himself from his rope harness, even managing to lift his broken leg enough to free himself completely. His shivering increased and he thought for a moment he might throw up, but he sat perfectly still until the wave of nausea passed and the pain in his leg calmed down.

He scooted across the floor until he could grab Helen's device. It was definitely smashed, but not as bad as he'd thought. The cover was hanging on by one screw, and some wires were poking out. Maybe the insides were fine, and all he had to do was figure out how to turn the thing on.

Connor studied it under the light from his torch. The glass portion of the device looked like a touch screen, so he ran his fingers across it and pressed various spots, but nothing happened. He studied the wires that were sticking out from the loose cover and tugged lightly. One came out easily, and it was attached to a broken bit of green plastic that had tiny threads of copper woven throughout it. He swore under his breath.

Still, Connor wasn't ready to give up just yet. He fished in his pocket for his knife, and when he did, his fingers brushed across the two small chips he'd taken from Helen's hut. When he pulled them into the light, he felt a flutter of hope. They were plastic and green with copper threads, and they looked an awful lot like the broken microchip still in the device.

- x – x – x –

"When another aftershock hit, we couldn't hold on any more," said Danny. He picked at a cuticle on his thumb, unable to face the accusing looks of the others in the room. As he described the way they had to leave Connor on the bottom of the hole with a broken leg, he couldn't keep his voice steady anymore. He paused and swallowed until his throat loosened up. He didn't want to break down in front of the team, and he knew there'd be more than enough time to do so in the privacy of his flat, especially without a job to return to.

"I should've told him no," he finished, his voice steady once again. "I take full responsibility."

"Yes, well," said Lester. "There'll be time to go into that later. Is there any chance the anomaly will open again?"

Danny shrugged and looked over at Abby. Next to Connor, she had the most experience with anomalies. Right now she had her arms crossed and was staring at the top of the conference room table. The bandage on the side of her head made her look like a war refugee. After a moment, she glanced up and looked startled to find everyone waiting for her to speak.

"Sorry," she said, her voice tight. She cleared her throat. "If this was a natural anomaly, then there would be a chance. But Helen created it with her device. We'd have to ask Connor to know for sure, but I doubt this particular anomaly will open by itself again."

She dropped her eyes back to the table and blinked rapidly. Danny fought the urge to reach over and squeeze her shoulder. He knew she wouldn't welcome his touch right now.

"Is there a chance Connor can open his own anomaly?" asked Lester, peering at each of them. "Use Helen's device?"

"If anyone can, it's Connor," said Abby. She straightened and glared at Danny. "You should've let me go through. I could be helping him right now. I could at least get him water or help him get a splint on his leg or something. Now he's all alone out there."

Danny sighed. "Abby, for one thing you might not have found the hole. For another, you have a concussion and what good would it do—"

"What good? At least he wouldn't be all alone!"

"But Abby," said Sarah, "you didn't have a rope or any supplies or anything."

"No, but you did." She pointed to Danny, and then to Becker who was slipping into the room, his arm newly bandaged and in a sling. "You could've stayed behind and helped and then come back home with him when he figured out the device."

"Assuming he can figure it out," said Becker, gingerly lowering himself into a chair. "Sorry, but it's a long shot at best. We all know how smart Connor is, but this is unfamiliar technology, and it fell a long way down that hole, so it might be damaged. I hate to be blunt but we needed to cut our losses and—"

"Enough." Danny held up a hand forestalling Abby's retort. She sank back in her chair, glowering at everyone. Becker tapped a pattern on the table with his fingers, pursing his lips as if it were a struggle not to keep arguing.

"Yes, maybe we could be helping Connor now," continued Danny. "Or we'd be in just as dire a situation as he is in, and then I'd be responsible for more people dying. We didn't have time to argue this in the field. The anomaly was closing, and I had to make a decision. End of story."

"Right," said Lester, standing. "For now we'll monitor anomalies in case Connor does figure out how to get back home. I'll call his next of kin. A mum, I believe, right Abby?" She nodded. "And I'll stall her for a week or two. After that . . ."

They sat in silence, knowing Connor wouldn't be able to survive for long without water. Danny had never thought he'd feel this helpless again, but it was exactly the same feeling as when his brother had disappeared and there was nothing he could do about it then or now. It wasn't a feeling her particularly enjoyed.

An anomaly alert blared and the lights blinked in response. Everyone jerked in surprise and glanced at each other.

"Connor," said Abby, jumping to her feet. "It has to be."

- x –x- x –

Connor threw Helen's microchips on the ground. They didn't fit. They were too big, and obviously not meant to replace the damaged component. He almost threw the opening device on the ground as well, smashing it against the rocky floor the way he'd like to smash it against Helen's head. But he didn't. He couldn't bring himself to damage important equipment like this needlessly. Even if it couldn't help him get home.

Letting his head drop back against the rock face, Connor closed his eyes. He didn't want this to be his one chance home. There had to be something else he could try before giving up completely.

Once Connor had watched a movie about a mountain climber who fell and broke his leg. He managed to walk back to camp and save his own life, despite the excruciating pain he'd been in. It was a true story.

Connor tucked the opening device in his pocket, leaned forward and pulled up his pant leg. He saw spots as the material squeezed over his calf. Normally he couldn't bear to look at his own injuries, but this time he had no choice. His lower leg was swollen and bruised, turning a brilliant shade of yellow and purple. But the skin wasn't broken, and his shin bone seemed to be aligned still, at least as far as he could tell under the swelling. Maybe he could walk on it.

After taking a few deep breaths for courage, Connor braced his hands on the rock wall behind him and pushed up until he was standing on his good leg. He broke out in a cold sweat, and his bad leg burned in pain from the change in position. After a minute or two, the burning dissipated, so Connor tried lowering his leg to the ground.

He quickly lifted it back up. Oh God that hurt. Off the scale pain. He screamed, and it made him feel better. Plus there was no one around to hear. One thing he noticed, as he fought down the urge to vomit, was that his leg seemed capable of holding his weight. There was no weird bone-out-of-place feeling like it might snap to one side or the other. There was no grinding or crunching of bone fragments rubbing against each other. It was just painful. And pain he could deal with. Maybe. He hoped.

Connor held onto the wall and took a tentative small step forward on his bad leg, quickly putting weight back onto his good leg. It still hurt like hell, but now that he knew what to expect, he thought he could deal with it. Like in the movie, he could take a few steps and then rest.

So that's what he did. Five quick, limping steps. Then lean against the wall until his heart stopped hammering through his chest and his body stopped shaking. Five more steps. Lean against the wall and fight back nausea.

He lost count, and after a while, he noticed that the opposite wall was now close enough to touch. He was at the narrow crack. Connor skipped his rest period and pushed on, using both walls as a crutch. When he turned the corner, he had to limp sideways in order to get past the opening. He pointed the torch into the crack.

It ended at a point just a few meters ahead. Exactly as he'd thought it would. This meant there was no way out of the cave other than using the anomaly-opening device, and he couldn't use that because one of the components was smashed, which he couldn't replace because he hadn't nicked the right parts from Helen's hut.

Connor limped back into the main part of the cave and let himself slump to the floor. There was nothing else left to do. He lay back, closed his eyes, and wondered what it would be like to die of thirst.

- x – x – x –

Abby sat in from of the ADD, chewing on a fingernail. Lester paced behind her, only stepping out of the Hub for the occasional phone call. The rest of the team had left over an hour ago, and even though the anomaly wasn't in the storeroom where Helen had opened it, they were all hoping this one—in a cornfield south of London—was Connor's.

"They should be there by now," Abby muttered. Lester grunted an assent and kept pacing.

The radio crackled. "Abby, come in, this is Danny."

Abby grabbed the radio and turned it on. "This is Abby. Have you seen the anomaly yet?"

There was a long pause. Abby glanced at Lester, and when he met her eyes, he gave her a look of compassion that sent a shiver up her back. "Danny, you there?" she asked.

"Yeah, sweetheart," said Danny in a tired voice. "We went through the anomaly. It leads to a frozen wasteland. It's not the Paleocene. There's no way Connor opened this anomaly. I'm sorry."

Abby must've said something in return to Danny, but she had no idea what. Lester grabbed the radio from her boneless fingers and signed off.

"Are you all right?" he asked her gently.

Abby nodded. "Can I go home now?" She touched the bandage on the side of her head. It had started to hurt again, and she should probably take another Percocet. "I probably shouldn't drive, though."

"I'll drive you," said Lester. "Come on."

Abby let him lead her to his car and help her into the passenger seat. She felt numb, like a zombie, and she didn't know how to react to the very real possibility that she'd never see Connor again. Never have him back in the flat. Never play another computer game with him. Never hold his hand as a girl rather than a friend. Never kiss him properly. Never tell him she loved him.

Never see him alive again.


	6. Chapter 6

Connor scooted across the cave until he was under the spot of sunlight shining down from the hole. The heat felt wonderful on his face, but it left the rest of him even colder. His leg especially felt icy. He tried rolling his pants leg back down, but the slight pressure of the material hurt like hell, so he left it rolled up, allowing the cave floor to leach the heat from his body.

For a while he wiggled around, following the sun like a terrier looking for a warm spot on the kitchen floor. He tried not to think. That was the main goal. Don't think and don't feel. Just exist.

But he could only ignore his urge to pee for so long until it became rather urgent. Gingerly moving as far away from his favorite spot as possible, he rolled on his side, unzipped, and relieved his bladder. His urine was dark yellow, a sign that he was already getting dehydrated. How long would he last? He'd heard people could go a week without water in the right circumstances, but the rule of thumb was 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. He had no idea where he'd learned that, but like a lot of useless trivia in his head, it came in handy once in a while.

He scooted back to the sun. He was already thirsty, and his throat was so dry it had become hard to swallow. He couldn't imagine three more days of this. Well, two and a half, since he'd already been in the cave half a day. Of course it was half a day after hiking through the jungle and sweating in the hot sun, so maybe it should be more like a whole day. Best not to think about it, he decided, trying to ignore the gruesome images of shrunken, mummified corpses that flashed into his brain.

Still, Connor couldn't help wondering what would happen to his body after he died. Would a paleontologist find his fossilized bones and wonder how they'd gotten into the Paleocene? And what about his mobile and the anomaly-opening device? Hey, maybe someone had already found them and written an "unsolved mystery" story about him. Maybe he was already famous, which was sort of cool, actually. Though he'd rather be plain old Connor Temple, boring geek with a nine to five job and a DVR full of shows to watch.

When his hunger started to drive him mad, he fished through all his pockets and came up with a small plastic container of breath mints. Success! They were wintergreen, not his favorite minty flavor, but he sucked on them one by one until they were all gone, enjoying their sharp coolness and trying not to think of them as a last meal. He'd briefly considered saving some for tomorrow but decided he might as well enjoy them while he still had enough spit to make them melt.

As the cave grew dark, Connor switched on his torch. Normally he'd want to save his batteries, but didn't see the point anymore.

Lying on the cold ground, shivering, his leg throbbing, his stomach gnawing at his backbone, his mouth dry, Connor closed his eyes. He wanted the oblivion of sleep, but his thoughts wouldn't shut up.

All the people he'd ever cared about popped into his head. His mum, with her kind smile and fierce hug and the way she always scolded him for not visiting more often. He'd wanted to take Abby to meet her, but he'd been too chicken to bring it up because his mum thought Abby was his girlfriend, and he didn't want Abby to find out. It could've been super embarrassing, and now he'd never get the chance for them to meet.

He thought of his dad, who'd died when he was thirteen and loved teaching Connor how to fix the car and the furnace and the toaster and whatever broke in the house. He remembered his Aunt Nettie with her fabulous pot pies and his Uncle Sam who always wanted to go fishing. He remembered Tom and Duncan and how he'd been meaning to call Duncan for a while now, try to keep the friendship going after Tom's death, but he'd never gotten around to it. And now he never would.

He thought of everyone at the ARC—Danny and Becker and Sarah—whom he hadn't known that long but loved working with. And Lester, who grumbled and made scathing comments and then did something extremely kind and out of character by asking Connor to live in his flat. And Jenny who'd left because she couldn't handle the terror anymore, which always surprised Connor. He thought of himself as the most scared of anyone, but not so.

He thought of Stephen and Cutter, who'd both died. Stephen, his friend, giving him advice about Abby and teaching him how to fire a gun. Cutter, being a mentor and a friend too. Always pushing him to do more and grudgingly praising him when he did something right.

And of course there was Abby, the love of his life and best friend. If he started thinking about her, he knew he'd be bawling within seconds.

Connor pressed his fingers to his eyes and willed away the tears. He'd done enough crying already. Instead he pulled out his mobile and turned it on. He only had 45 percent battery life remaining, so he had to be careful. He indulged himself for a while by scrolling through pictures. There were lots of Abby around the flat, dusting or eating breakfast or doing something mundane, usually making a silly face at him. There were a few of him and Abby together, like when they had a picnic at the park recently. A picture of them covered in whipped cream from a dessert disaster, their faces squished together. A picture of the old team before Stephen and Cutter had died, before Jenny quit, when he hadn't thought anyone might really die at work. A picture of the new team when one of the lab techs had had a baby shower. An old picture of him with Duncan and Tom from a con, all of them wearing black Dr. Who shirts.

God, he'd never go to another con again, he realized. Never see Dr. Who or Battlestar Galactica or a rerun of Star Trek or a movie. Never eat pizza or drink Coke or smell freshly mown grass. Never take a walk down the street in London. Never walk again. Never sleep in a bed or take a hot shower or hear an alarm clock or drink coffee or argue about the best way to warm up his socks—in the bread maker or the microwave. Never pet Sid and Nancy or tickle Rex under his chin. Never see Abby in her knickers or smell her perfume or crack a joke just to see her laugh.

"Aaaah," Connor screamed into the darkness. He swore at the top of his lungs over and over again, using every curse word he'd ever learned, and he did it until his throat hurt and his voice grew hoarse.

Connor stopped, panting. He wanted to punch something so badly he almost smashed his hand against the rocky ground, but he didn't want another broken bone, so he just clenched it until it shook from tension.

After a moment, Connor got himself under control. He took several deep breaths and then pressed the button on his phone to start recording.

"Hi," he said into the phone. "I don't know if anyone will ever see this, but I want to record my last thoughts before I die of thirst. I'm from the ARC in the 21st century, and I'm stuck in the Paleocene period."

- x – x – x –

When Abby got home, she found the flat blessedly empty. She didn't want to deal with Jack right now, and she wasn't sure how to explain Connor's predicament. After swallowing another Percoset, she made herself a cup of tea and sat down on the couch. A stack of Connor's DVDs were piled next to the TV and a Darth Vader Pez dispenser lay on top of it.

Abby glanced around the flat. Despite Connor not living there now, bits and pieces of him lay everywhere. A spare coat hung on the hook near the door. A pair of old sneakers were pushed into the corner. His favorite cereal sat on the kitchen counter. A picture of the two of them was tacked to the wall. They'd been hiking in the woods, and the sun shone brightly through the leaves. Connor's arm was around Abby, and they were both smiling. Abby remembered thinking he'd been cheeky to put his arm there, but since the morning had been chilly, she hadn't said anything. Plus, if she was honest with herself, she kind of liked the feel of him holding her close.

Abby wiped away the tears with her sleeve, sipped her tea, and turned on the telly. She didn't want to think anymore, so she flipped through the channels until a talent show came on, and she could pretend to care about who got the better scores. When the Percoset kicked in, making her feel light-headed and not connected to her body, she stretched out on the sofa and closed her eyes.

She woke up with a jerk, a scream chasing her into consciousness from a bad dream. She wasn't sure who'd been screaming, but it left her feeling cold and anxious. Abby sat up and switched off the TV.

Her tea was cold, and it was one in the morning. Abby didn't fancy trying to sleep so soon after waking from her nightmare, so she made herself a cup of herbal tea and took it into the lounge. After sitting at the computer, she checked e-mail, scrolled through Facebook, and browsed through designer handbags on Ebay.

Without even thinking about it, she found herself Googling "Paleocene human remains" and "Paleocene fossils." She didn't really expect to find anything. First of all, Connor was brilliant, and if anyone could figure out Helen's anomaly-opening device he could. He'd only been gone one day so far, not nearly long enough for him to die of thirst yet. Though she knew that didn't really mean anything when it came to time travel. Because if Connor had died millions of years ago, it obviously happened millions of years ago.

That's why, when her search turned up a site with an article on the "alien technology" found with human fossilized remains, she gasped and stared in disbelief. Connor hadn't figured out Helen's device, after all, she realized. He'd died, and someone had discovered his remains.

She spilled her tea in her haste to grab her mobile and punch in the number. When the sleepy voice answered, she blurted out, her voice thick with emotion, "Danny Connor is dead."


End file.
